Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

This is a report of a battle I recently had with my young son, allowing him to experiment with some of the new figures I painted up for him for Christmas as well as continuing to learn the new Necron rules. It is not a competitive game. We may have made some mistakes in rules interpretation (hopefully not)... but the focus is fun and learning for him, not winning for me.


The Battle:
2000 points... ish, annihilation, standard deployment (table edges)

The Necrons: 2000+ points


HQ: Imotekh + Royal Court (Lord w/ res orb & war scythe)
HQ: Destroyer Lord w/ res orb & war scythe
Elite: Triarch Stalker, heat ray, then twin-linked something-or-other (sorry, we changed mid-battle)
Troop: 20 Warriors
Troop: 10 Warriors
Troop: 10 Warriors
FA: 4 Destroyers
FA: 5 Wraiths, 3 whip coils
Heavy: Monolith
Heavy: Monolith

(and I can't remember where these go anymore...)
6 scarab bases
2 spyders

Here's a close-up of the triarch stalker proxy. I'll be converting and painting it. Best of all it actually moves itself across the board and can turn the main gun. Pretty awesome.


The Eldar 2000 pts


HQ: Avatar
Elite: 10 wraithguard + boneseer w/ conceal, spear
Trp: 10 guardians + warlock w/ conceal, WB + scatter laser
Trp: 20 guardians + warlock w/ conceal, WB + scatter laser
Trp: 10 pathfinders
FA: 10 harlequins w/ troop leader, shadowseer, death juster
FA: 5 warp spiders + exarch
Hvy: wraithlord w/ TL BL
Hvy: wraithlord w/ BL, sword
Hvy: wraithlord w/ EML


Necrons win the roll-off and elect to go first.

Deployment:

Thing 1 deploys in the center, putting his fast units in front to maximize their impact and protecting his warriors with his monoliths. HQ's are split between the two squads. I deploy opposite him and bubble wrap my good troops in guardians. Pathfinders in ruins to act as an annoying decoy.


Turn 1:

Necrons:
As planned the spyders successfully make a couple of bases of scarabs, plop them in front of the deployed unit and the batch streaks across the table for a turn 1 assault into my hapless guardians.



The rest of the army moves forward. As night fighting is in effect, there isn't much shooting to speak of. Thing 1 fails to roll a single 6 for Imotekh's lightning. *whew*



I lose several guardians but the unit holds.

Eldar:
The right flank moves forward and the avatar and harlies put themselves in good position to help the guardians in assault. The scouts on the left flank shoot their mother-lovin' brains out but thanks to the wraith's invul saves I only wound one wraith. Night Fight foxes any other shooting so there is just assault to worry about. The Avatar and harlies pile into the combat and the ensuing fracas wipes out the little bugs.



Score: Necrons - 0, Eldar - 1


Turn 2:

Necrons:
Night fighting is still in effect and once again the Storm Lord's lightning attack fizzles! Fazorgle.... fizzt!

The Necron army continues to move forward, and the scarabs decide to try and take out the remaining guardians for the victory point (and to delay the advance of the assautly nastiness in the center). The guardians take two casualties and route!



Both the Wraiths and Destroyers continue to advance on the Necron right flank, hell bent on removing the pathfinders from the scene. Between shooting and assault, they put the sole surviving pathfinder to flight, the whip coils doing their evil work.



Night Fighting once again minimizes many shooting attacks, though seeing the Triarch Stalkers move themselves into position and swivel their guns at their targets is just too cool for school! They take out a few guardians but I pass morale. The monoliths pie-plate the hell out of the poor Harlequins, killing 7. (or rather killing several, then their fearless roll brings the total to 7) Anyway, somehow 7 die horribly. OH, and we realize he should have only 1 Triarch Stalker, so their number is reduced accordingly (does not count for VPs).



Eldar:
The Warp Spiders deep strike and mishap! My son gets to place them and chooses to put them in the middle of my existing forces rather than some more obscure but "less secure" area. They run to become a bit less particle whip prone. The Harlequins and Avatar get into position to charge the spyders, everything else trudges forward. Guardians sliding over to allow the Wraithguard to advance unimpeded. Wraithlord shooting at the remaining Stalker fails utterly. However the counter assault by the Avatar and surviving Harlies has the anticipated result.



Score: Necrons - 2, Eldar - 2



Turn 3:

Necrons:
Night fight comes down (finally). The Necrons continue to move forward and envelop the Eldar line. My son pie-plates the Avatar still fearing it's assault capabilities, but does nothing to it. The stalker advances and shoots at one of the Wraithlords to no avail.



Eldar:
The Eldar fall back in order to consolidate their position with two notable exceptions. The Avatar continues to stride forward as do the Wraithguard.



Shooting from the Wraithguard wrecks the Triarch Stalker (fancy armor doesn't work when your guns essentially ignore AVs!). One of the Wraithlords wounds a wraith... which (after the picture was taken) we realize should have been allocated to the already wounded wraith (meaning one kill).



The Avatar charges and belly-bounces one of the monoliths.

Score: Necrons - 2, Eldar - 3


At this point my son was getting kind of discouraged as he was losing and my Avatar was in and amongst his monoliths. It was at this juncture that I pointed out to him that if you could not kill monstrous creatures by hitting them with a few large weapons... you can take them out with a zillion smaller ones. Unfortunately, he took my advice to heart as you will see.


Turn 4:

Necrons:
The steely mechanical vice continues to close around the beleaguered Eldar forces. The wraiths and destroyers continue to advance along the flank and get dangerously close to the Eldar left. One of the monolith's withdraws a bit sending a cheer up in the eldar lines, only to be hushed when legions of necron warriors file in from behind. The results are as expected from 40 rapid fire gauss blasters.





The advancing Destroyers put a wound on a Wraithlord and something picks off a Wraithguard (maybe monolith secondary guns?).



Eldar:
Determined to stop the Wraiths, the guardians, surviving Harlequins and the Warp Spiders all get into position around them. They all shoot, they then all assault.... then they all die or route. One wraith is killed. Shooting from the Wraithlords accomplishes nothing. The Wraithguard fall back to, well... guard the Wraithlords. This turn is a complete disaster for the pointy ears as there is now only one living eldar on the table (the Spiritseer).



Score: Necrons - 6, Eldar - 3


Turn 5:

Necrons:
Emboldened, the Necrons press the attack. Everything moves up including Imotekh and his large unit of Warriors. The Advancing destroyers gun down the wounded Wraithlord while the monoliths pie-plate the Wraithguard into near oblivion.



Eldar:
The last, surviving Eldar pile into the hated Wraith unit.



When it's over, the Lord and a Wraith are down, along with a couple of Wraithguard. (sorry, no pic)

Score: Necrons - 7, Eldar 4


Turn 6:

Necrons:
There's not much to show in turn 6. The Necrons advance, Imotekh moves ahead of his squad to hopefully help with the assault on the Wraithlords.

Eldar:
Wounded Wraithlords finally finish off the last Wraith, though the Wraithguard unit is also gone.



Score: Necrons - 8, Eldar 5


Turn 7:

Necrons:
Necrons unload everything on the two Wraithlords but fail to finish either of them off.



Eldar:
I can go for either Imotekh or the destroyers... inexplicably a go after the destroyers... kill one.

Final Score: Necrons - 8, Eldar - 4


So, a convincing Necron victory even though neither of us were any too sure of the rules. A good confidence builder for my son and a fun afternoon for me!

Thanks for reading!

Nice battle report
and I see your son got some reinforcements in the guise of NecroCat

Yes, please note that the arrival of the cat coincided with my complete failure militarily. Cats not only suck the breath out of little babies, they sucked the life out of my counter attack!

Good little batrep as always, and props to thing 1 on his success! Is that teddy bear stuffing smoke , by any chance?

Nope, that's the GF 9 pre-colored fiber, but I bet it's the same thing. You can buy the stuff white by the bag full for a couple of bucks and it takes sprayed paint just fine.

Nice bat rep Gits it looks like the Necrocat brought good luck to the Necron side just at the right time sending fear into the heart of the Eldar causing them to mishandle their weapons.

New Necron rule - Random appearance of the Necrocat

When thy Necrocat does shall appear on thy table edge thy enemy's shall roll poor dice as they cower in fear

It's so funny that you used the robot bug for the Stalker! I was in Brookstone the other day and that was the first thing I thought of when I saw those. Awesome batrep!

Cool batrep Gits. Those poor eldar lost because no Farseer or Eldrad. They need their sneaky defenses, esp to keep those Harlies and Avatar alive. It is good to help your son. At a young age if they get trounced, they will likely not continue to play...
My dad growing up never let me win at anything, though when I finally started beating him, it made me feel good. He did however not ever play Warhammer 40k or any such game, as it was not his style. Cool bat rep. My Eldar will not be so easily put down...
Cheers

As stated in the OP, it was not intended to be a competitive force... just a fun one & one likely to give both boys some success.

I will however, crush your eldar with reckless abandon and use their flimsy, soft, squidgy corpses for fertilizer in our organic, emperor sanctioned victory garden. I'm sure the veggies will smell more fruity after feeding on them.

Great battle report. Ma kid hit 16months and I'm already counting down the days to when he can reach the, miniatures on the table and resist the urge to put em in his mouth.

Nice batrep. Let's hope your son keeps interested, it's nice to see how you're nurturing their interest in the hobby!

I enjoyed this bat rep alot. Keep'em comming

I liked the robot conversion btw. great ideas =)

Good rep as always Gitta.
Good overall battlefield pics mixed with action shots are great.

The cat on the table got me giggling to death. He looked so content.

Thanks for the comments guys, I appreciate it.

Whenever we play the cat (or sometimes cats) make an appearance. That's Darwin... he's sulking because by that time he'd been kicked off the table about 6 times already. I did go through and do some editing, along with fixing one of the later pictures that appeared twice in a row (got the right pic in there now). Probably not worth a re-read but at least it's fixed for any new readers.

Have a game today against my youngest's Nids. Should be entertaining in that "going to get my butt kicked again" kind of way!

Good game. Tough to balance - bolstering confidence and learning to lose with grace.

There is an very close proxy for the Triarch Stalker called the " trinity Tomb walker at Bitspudlo...

http://bitspudlo.com/products/trinity-tomb-crawler

Never sure when GW will produce a kit for a codex they all ready released. ( intentional scarcasm )

Look forward to the bat rep with the nids.

SL

Should have known, Space Egypt worships Space Cats. You never stood a chance once the cat showed up.

Nice battle report. Always nice to see someone teaching another person the game.

Excellent bat rep. I really enjoyed that you allowed your son to win. I recall many a time losing with grace when showing others how to play.

That's the trick... throwing the game is no fun for anyone. Making a few mistakes along the way and seeing if he capitalizes on them is another matter entirely.

to bad my 1st game was against my friend and he smshed me with his Tau

Happens Matt... just keep at it.

Agreed. Practice makes perfect (or better painters)

so true.. Losing or winning with grace is truly a mark of a champion

It is been a good experience splitting the things and joining against their dad. Helps when you can talk strategy with your teammate rather than your Opponent. ( I Mentoring conduct only, since I only play for fun) I look forward to the next encounter.

SL

Just a friendly reminder. You have 10 wraithguard chosen as an elites choice. However, by taking 10 it allows them to become a Troops choice. That will help your army by gaining a very tough scoring unit. Additionally, your army really needs a Farseer. It will increase the durability of your wraithguard and harlequins.

I appreciate the tips CaptK... keep in mind though that this army was chosen more as a practice dummy for my opponents (my kids) that it was intended to be a good army in it's own right. Didn't know that thing about the wraithguard though... very useful tidbit that.

lol, it's been 2 years since that battle, and I've never lost to Tau since

Tyranids still stump me, though...

My Dad has after years of heckling and begging decided to start playing 40K. Initially, he was thinking Guard, but has not settled on Marines. So, I'm excited about that so I think these father/son games are cool.

I started laughing so hard when I saw the cat on the table. Dad and I have been discussing building a table, where to put it, terrain type, etc. But, we both sheepishly were waiting on the other to mention problems caused by my and my wife's two cats. Chandler and Monica would destroy a mob of boys or batter the crap out of a tactical squad in a heart beat. Glad to see we aren't the only ones facing this issue. HAHA.

Great report and I'll be watching for the one against the bugs.

Ours don't really mess with the figures... they (especially Darwin, the black-and-white cat) have a tendency to flop down on the table and knock them over... but that's accidental. I've never seen one of the cats actually tear into a figure (and they've had ample opportunity).

We usually have a clear space somewhere on the table where the battle isn't taking place where one or both of the cats can flop without disrupting things. We do have special rules for the cats though (they are impassible, dangerous terrain).

Really enjoyed this report. I'm sure it was enjoyable and amusing to play as it was to read

My dad never used to let me win or give me any chances :( And after i really started battering him with my Nids he suddenly didn;t want to play me anymore

The boys are actually pretty good, they just don't know all the nuances yet. That'll come with time. I'd rather them learn the rules and have fun than massage my own ego by beating them all the time.

Great report, love the pictures!

Too bad the Footdar didn't take it!

Was nice to see the wraithguard holding out till the end though. Definitely my fav eldar unit. Just wish they were a little cheaper so it was worth making a pure ghost warrior list.